Switzerland is a lure for the mafia

On a Saturday evening in 2017, a gunshot rang out in an otherwise quiet village in eastern Switzerland. A few steps away from a busy restaurant, the body of a man shot dead lie in a pool of blood. The murder might well have been the result of a simple dispute, perhaps to do with drug trafficking. But the story is not so simple. For fedpol, the blood-stained corpse was the starting point of two joint investigations by Switzerland and Italy. It was a vital piece of the jigsaw of a large-scale Italian operation orchestrated by Cavalli di Razza against the 'Ndrangheta, the Italian mafia with the greatest presence in Switzerland.

Analyses by fedpol and information from the Italian authorities confirmed the possibility of drug trafficking linked to a criminal organisation. The Direzione Distrettuale Antimafia of Milan and the prosecutors of Reggio Calabria and Florence were already on the case. The Italian authorities consider Switzerland an important logistics base for the mafia. Several clans are known to be based here to carry out their cocaine, heroin and arms trafficking. The Swiss and Italian prosecuting authorities worked together closely. The success of the intensive and close collaboration between the cantonal police, fedpol, the Swiss Federal Prosecutor's Office and the Italian authorities led to the creation of the Joint Investigation Team.

A successful crackdown

Four years after the murder, the joint cooperation efforts were about to bear fruit. One of the targets was a vehicle suspected of traveling back and forth between Switzerland and Italy. The crackdown began in the early morning of 16 November 2021, 3.30am sharp, when the Zurich cantonal police checked the car of one of the suspects in a parking lot. And bingo. Under the driver's seat, they discovered an electronic safe containing three pistols and ammunition. Other searches were under way in four cantons. In Ticino, two pistols were found. In St Gallen, the target was hiding one kilogram of cocaine in his freezer. Cash was also seized. The Mafiosi were arrested. The coordinated action between Switzerland and Italy was a success: 98 individuals were arrested in Italy, and six in Switzerland. Their extradition is in progress. In total, 180 police officers from fedpol, the cantons of Ticino, Grisons, St Gallen and Zurich were involved.

Switzerland, a logistics base of the Italian mafia

16 November 2021 marked the culmination of years of close cooperation between the Swiss and the Italian authorities, and brought the Swiss part of two investigations to a close. The Italian authorities took the baton. In its press release, the Guardia di Finanzia wrote, “Interest in drug trafficking seems to be strong, with a growing presence in Switzerland, in particular in St Gallen, which has become a logistics base for some of the suspects who have settled there.” Even more than a logistics base, Switzerland acquired special importance in the eyes of the mafia. This was seen in the rank of the arrested individuals, not young mobsters, but important people within the 'Ndrangheta. Members of several clans installed in Switzerland would quietly travel our roads to sell and store the drugs of the mafia. This November 16th also marked progress toward streamlining the exchange of information, which is an essential part of the process. While the cantonal police see the individual crimes, fedpol sees the network behind them.